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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Follow Sarah: What do YOU Want to Learn?

I've been getting a lot of messages lately from photographers looking for help. They've got questions about lighting, posing, working with models or editing techniques, even ways to get their business going.
Now, I don't consider myself the expert on all things photography. I am learning and growing ALL the time. The last 6 to 8 months have probably seen the largest jump in skill and technique that I have had over my 7 years of active photography. However, I do know what it feels like to want to reach out and learn, to be hungry to grow and to be more in love with what I create.
I firmly feel that if everyone waited until they knew everything, no one would ever teach anything because there is no such thing as knowing everything. With that in mind, I give as much advice as I can, but I have clients to take care of and all the responsibilities of being a wife and mommy so I don't have as much time as I would like to help.

As a solution, I decided to take on an intern. I figured that would be the best way to pour out as much helpful information as possible since she would be part of my schedule and I can teach as I go, which is something that comes naturally to me...just ask my hair and makeup gals. But I know that will only reach 1 person and whomever she decides to share with.

Then I thought, well what if I made a blog post about all of our lessons? That fits into my weekly schedule (since I try to keep a normal time to blog...even if I don't always succeed at it...)AND is something that could be really helpful to other photographers SO; Follow Sarah is what you get!

I will do my best to add 1 blog post a week that will cover what Sarah and I discuss and learn during our sessions.

A few of the things I intend to cover are:

Light: Natural and artificial and how to manipulate both to achieve the results you want.Posing: How to create composition with the body and flatter your modelEditing: Finding your own style and editing in a non-destructive way

There will be a lot of mini-lessons within those categories specific to where Sarah is at in her journey, as well as discussions about business, homework assignments, juggling family life and work, and many other things I am sure. Hopefully we will be able to get a bit of video into the sessions as well.

I fully expect to learn as much as I teach through this journey, and I am hoping you will be joining us! All the posts will be cataloged within the Follow Sarah headline where you can leave what you are doing to follow along, keep up with homework assignments, and any questions you have about what we are doing. I will do my best to answer them as I have the time!

FS (follow Sarah) Homework Assignment:

Write the answers to these questions in the comments section below.

I would love for you to take some time and consider where you want to go with your photography. Be as honest as possible with your answers, even if it's "nothing" or "I don't know."

Who is your photography hero?

Who/what do you enjoy photographing the most? The least?

What are your 2 short term and 2 long term goals?

What are you doing right now to achieve those goals?

What are your greatest strengths as a photographer? As a business person?

What are your greatest weaknesses as a photographer? As a business person?

What are the biggest obstacles you face right now that are keeping you from being where you want to be?

What do you hope to gain from FS?

So we can see where YOU are in your photography journey, feel free to share 1 example of your work for critique.